DOCS. 9, 10 MARCH 1903 13 Hear, hear! But I'm not a great mogul Don't understand.[2] Is this perhaps an allusion to Heine's poem? Oh Oh. your regards to me. That had an unpleasant effect on me because it shows a lack of consideration toward my son, seeing that I am his mother, who sacrifices herself for him, and toward me, for whom he does the same. Surely you know that an open card will be read by me as well. I cannot help but characterize your behavior as coarse. Some time ago I wrote to congratulate you on your marriage, which I have done merely because my son should have done it, and not in order to ingratiate myself with you; I don't force myself upon young people. I am neither an old chatterbox nor an old Jewess; once I too was young, inexperienced, and harsh in my judgments, but never was I coarse. The words "an old Jewess" are my first deliberate coarseness, and their only purpose is to save me from your greetings in the future. Respectfully Mrs. Ehrat 10. To Emma Ehrat-Ühlinger [Bern, last week of March 1903][1] Dear Mrs. Ehrat! Today I received the enclosed letter from a dear acquaintance, who has shown me much kindness in the past, and who has also sheltered me under her hospitable roof;[2] one can discern a great deal of nastiness in it without having to read too much between the lines. Of course, our kind, or, more exactly, "those of our persuasion,"[3] do not get upset so easily. This equanimity dates from the times when the great "Rabbi ben Akiba" trumpeted into the world his famous words, "Whatever happens, has already happened before."[4] But now I have lost faith in the good man; for it probably has never happened before that the mother of an academic did not know that her proper and official title is "the man's old lady." Countless letters that I wrote to my mother carry the salutation, "Dear Old Lady."[5] In fact, she even complained once that I addressed her simply as "Mother." I must have been very depressed, she thought. Hasn't Jakob[6] explained this to you?